EULOGY ON AMPERE. 125 



him on before. " I shall no longer," be added, '■'■ be in ignorance of the 

 fact that the 50,000 francs of my fortune consecrated to play will pass 

 into other hands. I am resigned to it perfectly; but I shall no longer 

 be, in the eyes of the world, the dupe of an absurd delusion. I shall 

 continue to play, because the superfluous 50,000 francs expended in any 

 other way would be unable to excite in my feeble frame, undermined by 

 suffering, the lively sensations alone aroused by the various combina- 

 tions, fortunate and adverse, displayed every night on the green carpet!" 



A little reflection will prove that these words are not a mere para- 

 phrase of the well-known witticism of a celebrated statesman : "After 

 the pleasure of winning, I know none so great as that of losing." 



It would be doing injustice to mathematical science if I attempted to 

 defend its formulas against the reproach of not having foreseen that 

 the passionate storms, resulting from play, which sweep the bosom would 

 not always i^revail over the soft and touching gratification men of means 

 might daily enjoy in applying their wealth to the alleviation of human 

 misery. The passions, although of divine institution, as a woman of 

 the world once said, are so jirotean that it would be a vain effort on the 

 part of mathematics to entwine them in their regular and methodical 

 meshes. But, again, if science has failed in such a task, the misfortune 

 is shared by the dialectics of the moralist, the eloquence of the pulpit, 

 and even by the sweet persuasions of the poet. 1 have read somewhere 

 that Colbert on one occasion wished to dissuade the monarch whom he 

 had never failed to serve with devotion and ability from undertaking a 

 certain war. Boileau, promising to aid him in his eflbrt, addressed to 

 Louis XIV that beautiful letter containing a seductive picture of the 

 delights of peace, and, among other remarkable passages, the lines on 

 the Emperor Titus, that live in the memory of every one : 



Qui rendit de son joug I'univers amoiixeux ; 

 Qu'on n'aEa jamais voir sans revenir henreux ; 

 Qui soupirait, le soir, si sa main fortunde 

 N'avait par ses bienf aits signal^ sa journ^e. 



Who led the world captive, yet charmed "with its chain, 

 From whom no one could part without joy in his breast, 



Whose BA'euings were saddened and shadowed with i^aiu, 

 When closing a day that his hand had not blest. 



These lines touched the heart of the king. He caused them to be 

 read aloud to him three times, then ordered his horse to be saddled, and 

 straightway joined the army. 



AlMPi^EE'S POETICAL COMPOSITIONS. 



Amx)ere composed, in his early youth a tragedy on the death of Han- 

 nibal, in which are to be found some excellent poetry and the noblest 

 sentiments. I must add here, that during his sojourn in the jirincipal 

 town of the department of Ain, his mind was not so completely ab- 

 sorbed in science, that he could give no time to the study of literature 



